A saint is a sinner who never gave up
Paramhansa Yogananda
The common goal of humanity is to live happily ever after, surrounded by loved ones, enjoying good health and prosperity all of the time. Everybody seeks these, sometimes in the darkest of places, but in the final analysis very few will be completely satisfied. The great paradox of life is that we are seeking on the outside what is already hidden within us.
We are made in the image of the Lord (Genesis 1:26-28), so instead of looking to receive happiness, love, prosperity and fulfillment from the outside world we should shine them forth and release them from our inner being (as all of this is already included in an image of the Lord). To understand our full potential as God’s children, we just have to look at the example of Jesus Christ, who is a pure image of the Father and perfectly reflected His character and nature (see John 17:25-26 and John 14:9).
Did Jesus complain about the comforts of life? Was he following the latest fashion trends of the time, buying new clothes and shoes every season? Or, was he upgrading his iPhone as new models became available? What kind of house did he own etc. etc.? These are the things we crave; these are the things we think will bring us satisfaction and fulfillment. Yet, Jesus said: “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Matthew 8:19-20).
So, Jesus didn’t have much of the “necessities of life”, but he had Father’s love, protection and resources. Having that he had all, because Father is all in all (Ephesians 4:6), the Alpha and Omega, the Almighty (Revelation 1:8). Would you be scared of anything if you would know that the same Father loves you too? Or, would you be worried about a particular need of yours if you know that you just have to ask God and He will provide whatever you ask for?
If God created us in His image, surely He cares for us and loves us, but somehow we lost an awareness of this fact. We somehow fell out of this relationship, or we were never aware that we could have it, because nobody told us. This is the thing we are searching for, sometimes in the darkest of places, not having a clue that what we are searching for is God’s love and all goodness that comes when we realize who is our Parent, and how rich He is.
There is no boundary to His love and resources, otherwise He wouldn’t be infinite; with Father everything comes in boundless quantities, everything is limitless – His love and kindness, His riches and His help and protection. Would you like to be in relationship with such a Father? To stand unshaken amidst any circumstance and trial, knowing that Father is with you? Or to express yourself in unlimited and unconditional terms? This state of consciousness comes through the oneness with Christ and Father.
Jesus prayed for us to be one with him (i.e. Christ) and the Father (John 17:20-23) and so to be perfect and to realize our true nature. The only thing that is required from us, to receive this grace, is our willingness to receive it (and be transformed in the process). The promise of God is that whosoever will pursue Him will be elevated to the status of His son (John 1:12).
This would be an easy feat in the world without temptation. But God created temptation (Isaiah 45:7) so that only those with a sincere and strong desire for Him, and only those that will forsake everything else to be with God, will actually find Him. Our decisions and actions can only lead us in two possible directions: towards God (good actions) or away from God (wrong or evil actions).
It is really easy to determine if one’s actions are good or evil. By definition, good actions are only those that bring you closer to God. As discussed above, God wants all of His children to live in happiness, love, prosperity and fulfillment, so (as God is all-encompassing) good actions will bring into effect all of these benefits to you but also to everybody else around you. Any lesser outcome means that the action is not good enough or is even of the opposite (evil) effect.
However, it is hard to execute good actions, because they require sacrifice and willingness to endure transformation of our lower nature into the higher nature of God’s image within us; they correct our lesser ways and make us forget our smallness as we grow and change into a true child of the Almighty.
If we want to become God’s sons and daughters then we have to accept His discipline and correction (Hebrews 12:6-10). These are hard and grievous to endure at first, but bring the everlasting fruit of knowing God as one’s Father and having the confidence that His helping and loving hand is always close (Hebrews 12:11). Hence, the right way forward is to “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).
Click on the image to enlarge it.
So, this brings us to the infographic shown above. When God looks at us, He sees not only what we are aware of (indicated with the black ellipse of “wakeful consciousness”) but also the hidden things and seeds rooted within our subconscious mind. These behavioral patterns (a single word that describes them well is Sanskrit word “karma”) define how we react to various situations in life. They could be hidden and ready to invade our awareness as soon as the opportune moment would arise (i.e. they are “not yet in operation”) or are actively directing and supporting our reactions to everyday situations (i.e. “in operation”).
The basis of these behavioral patterns are habits, formed sometime in the past, by the repetitive performance of the particular actions. Habits could be very useful, as they support automatic execution of actions. For example, once you learn how to use eating utensils this becomes a habit (as the knowledge becomes “grooved” into the brain) and does not require a special mental effort. Otherwise, if no habit would be able to form, you would need to re-learn how to use eating utensils with each new day.
Habits are like shortcuts that brain saves for later use, together with the description of the situations (i.e. triggers) that will “fire” them off. Whenever the trigger situation will occur, the related habit will automatically execute the saved behavioral pattern, which could be a physical movement of the muscles, emotional movement of the heart, particular thought patterns in the mind or even chemical and electrical reactions at the cellular level of the body.
In its own right, the mechanism of habits is neutral, but depending on which behavioral pattern is saved, we talk about good and bad habits. Habits can be of different strength, which is just a measure of how much is person’s will able to control their automatic “firing”. Weak habits are relatively easily suppressed by person’s other decisions, while very strong habits easily override person’s will. To get rid of a very strong habit the person will have to exert very strong will and continuously perform the opposite actions (i.e. opposite to those actions that established the original habit) that will first “delete” the original habit and then save the new behavioral pattern as the new habit.
Habits could also form groups or chains, where firing of one habit will trigger another one and that one will trigger another one and so forth. Sometimes, these make man a helpless puppet driven by automatic responses of his saved habits. God doesn’t want us to be so bound and helpless. He will make sure (if you ask Him and are willing to change) that you are given the “opportunity” (i.e. thrown into a difficult situation) where you will have to use strong will to oppose evil tendencies (i.e. demonic behavioral patterns) and establish good behavior (i.e. angelic behavioral patterns).
Human beings normally have “mixed consciousness”, meaning that there are some good and there are some bad habits that rule their lives. When they give their life into God’s hands and apply the spirit of His law to all situations they come across, they will gradually exchange all of their bad habits for the good ones and by His grace, God will also remove bad patterns they are not yet aware of (i.e. from their subconsciousness). Thus they will become saints where their good actions are supported by the “wired frame” of their angelic behavioral patterns.
If they refuse to be corrected by God then (because God gave all of His children free will) He cannot do much for them, but wait until they turn back to Him. Because devilish behavior will bring evil results and establish demonic behavioral patterns, these people will loose even the little goodness they once had. “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath” (Matthew 13:12).
Nevertheless, even evildoers are God’s children and they cannot be 100% bad, because God’s image is their basis too. Once they become disillusioned with evil, and decide they had enough of darkness, they will start climbing the steps of virtue (i.e. start exerting their will to do good and establish good behavioral patterns) and God will be able to come into their lives and restore them as His children.
For more info about people’s behavior and how we climb the spiral stairway of consciousness on our way into the oneness with God see the previous post.
